1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer capable of smoothly outward discharging a printing medium being transported after printing data requested by a user has been printed thereon and capable of preventing troubles leading to the inability to discharge paper, i.e., jamming, due to curving of the printing medium.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional printer, a printing medium tends to be bent because a leading end of the printing medium comes into contact with an outlet portion of a feeding path when the printing medium is transported to the outside. This would cause the inability to discharge paper (jamming). To prevent such jamming, Japanese patent application laid-open publication No. H6(1994)-13234 discloses a technique for smoothly discharging a printing medium by providing a projecting piece in a feeding path along which the printing medium is moved.
A thermal printer disclosed in the '234 publication includes a paper feeding roller mechanism for feeding a printing medium to between a flat platen and a carriage and a paper discharging roller mechanism for catching and discharging the printing medium having passed between the flat platen and the carriage. On the inside of a cover covering a compartment in which the carriage and other components are housed, between the carriage and the discharging roller mechanism, a plurality of projecting pieces are provided extending downward and spaced at given intervals to come into contact with a leading end of the printing medium. These projecting pieces are arranged so that the leading end of the printing medium comes into contact with a center projecting piece first and then other projecting pieces placed on the periphery. The projecting pieces are designed such that one placed at a position corresponding to the center of the printing medium has a longest downward length and others placed as closer to both side edges of the cover have a shorter length.
By bringing the leading end of the printing medium into contact with the center projecting piece first and then the other peripheral projecting pieces as above, it is possible to smoothly guide the leading end of the printing medium from the carriage to the discharge roller mechanism.